KVH Industries, Inc., (NASDAQ:KVHI) announced the successful activation of its mini-VSAT Broadband(SM) service in Asia-Pacific waters in collaboration with SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (also known as SP-JSAT) via the JCSAT-1B satellite. This expansion expands mini-VSAT Broadband's capacity to support the world's commercial shipping market, with 13 of the world's 20 busiest ports in terms of cargo tonnage located within the new coverage area.
KVH and SP-JSAT are also pursuing hardware and broadband airtime sales in the Asia-Pacific maritime market with SP-JSAT granted exclusive rights for sales to Japanese-flagged and Japanese-owned vessels. In addition, SP-JSAT will provide service coverage in the Indian Ocean in early 2010.
The addition of Asian service is the latest step in the KVH and ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) joint effort to field a global Ku-band broadband network for maritime vessels, as well as ViaSat's Yonder(SM) mobile network for in-flight broadband to business and commercial aircraft. Together, KVH and ViaSat are already offering voice service and broadband data services up to 512 Kbps (upload) and 2 Mbps (download) at fixed monthly rates to mariners throughout North America, the Caribbean, the North Atlantic, Europe, the Northern Pacific, and the Persian Gulf. KVH recently announced that it had sold more than 500 TracPhone V7 systems worldwide and that testing was underway for the addition of mini-VSAT Broadband service around Australia and New Zealand.
(www.minivsat.com)